Time to take it to the next level and go pro, but....

Okay, 39% rule says your listening position should be ~5'6" in a 14' length. Your mid-field monitors should be close to an equilateral triangle but at least 1' from the wall so about 6' apart and a foot from the wall. If you get rear port 8s you'll need to work something out to where they don't point directly into your bass trapping in your 8' wide room. Probably should shoot for front ported speakers. Your near fields can sit either side of the desk (also should be nearly an equilateral triangle) maybe 3' apart and 3' from your ears. Leaving the computer monitors on the wall may not be a problem if they're big enough that you can see them from 5' away, but maybe get (or build) a stand for them to sit right behind your desk and backlight with some color of your choice. :)
My best opinions. YMMV. Past performance is no indicator of yada yada...
 
MeltdownStudio said:
I phoned a few places that sell insulation here in my home town and the best i could get was RockWool ( the soft stuff for walls ) cost 32 euro a bag which is pritty expensive, would that be any good for making basstraps or a cloud or does it have to be rigid board like you said, i can order some of that on ebay or amazon.

How many do you think i would need on the walls and ceiling
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Do you have any links to this 'insulation'? Sounds like it may not be what you want for traps. SHould be 50mm (in which case you double it up for traps) or 100mm thick. Typically comes in cut panels, not in a bag, so I think someone is actually selling you fiberglass thermal insulation, not rockwool.

You want bass traps in all corners (floor to celing) to start. Back wall, front wall, first reflection point, ceiling cloud. the FRP and clouds can be 50mm instead of 100mm, but when it comes to traps, more is always better - you can't overtrap a less-than-ideal room.
 
I've ordered this before: Roxul Rockboard 60

It's easy to work with and would be great for making your clouds and reflection point panels. They also have the fabric coverings you'd need. Shipping's not cheap but their prices are pretty good and kind of make up for it I think.

You can also make corner bass traps out of that if they are going to straddle the corners in your room. Alternately you could make the "superchunk" style of corner bass traps out of something a little less dense such as Roxul Safe n Sound which you might be able to find in a local hardware store.
 
JeffLancaster said:
I've ordered this before: Roxul Rockboard 60

It's easy to work with and would be great for making your clouds and reflection point panels. They also have the fabric coverings you'd need. Shipping's not cheap but their prices are pretty good and kind of make up for it I think.

You can also make corner bass traps out of that if they are going to straddle the corners in your room. Alternately you could make the "superchunk" style of corner bass traps out of something a little less dense such as Roxul Safe n Sound which you might be able to find in a local hardware store.
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Yeah, the ATS shipping is not cheap. But the OP is in Europe, I believe.
 
Hi back again to say thanks to everyone who helped me out with deciding which way to go about getting my studio in order.

Now i know its a small room with a low ceiling but this is my spot on planet earth for the time been lol, so I knocked everything down inside and am starting over again. I got rid of all the odd corners and am now left with a empty room thats 6.75' x 8.4' x 14'.

So my plan now is to build a new bench, from the back to where my door is, is 5.8' i am going to leave a 2 foot gap behind the bench which will leave me with 3.8' for my bench wall to wall.

I have a 32"TV going on the back wall right in the center as my main monitor and 2x 22" monitors on swivel bracks coming off the back of the bench, my (new) speakers will be going on stands behind the bench

Basstraps floor to ceiling 4 corners (which now i have, i fixed up the odd corner where all my records are )
2 Homemade Clouds 1 right over my head where i will be sitting and one at the back ( I am 5.9' tall which leave's me 10.5 Inches headroom for the cloud )
My reflection points - Whats best to use here - more homemade one's out of Rockwool or the one's you buy that have the grids in them, my door will most likely been one of them points, i have a curtain there but i could put a 3/4" plywood door there that would open inways and put my panel on the back of the door
Front and Back walls, back wall will have that 32" right in the center so whats best to use behind me

I have a window on the same wall as the door its double glazed 3.4' x 2.9', i was thinking of making a panel that would sit into the sill (on hooks so i could remove it when needed)

Have i missed anything here ?

And its down to these 3 monitors

I have to realistic here due to the size of the room ( i want the best sound really not the loudest )

Focal Alpha 65 - ( This i think seems to be the best choice i have come accross for my room size )
Yamaha HS8 - ( Really like the reviews on this, but i am a bit worried about it been to big for my room and my equilateral Triangle)
Personus Eris 8 ( Cheapest of the 3 good reviews too, but its an 8" aswell so same goes like the yamaha )

I should have it all finished by the end of next week if you have any feedback while im doing this it would be much appreciated

Thanks for all your help

Jay

Meltdown Studio
 
You already know what I'll say about the Yamaha. Rear ports firing into your bass baffles might be trouble. So there, I said it anyway.
But regardless, if you can swing $800 for the Focals, that's the balm right there.
 
Sounds like you're doing it right, Jay. For the reflection point panels, I'd go ahead and make them out of rockwool as well, 4" thick with a 2 or 4" air gap between them and the walls if you can manage it. And my understanding is that with a room of your size, you can't go wrong with too much bass trapping, so on the wall behind you I'd just try to put put up more thick rockwool basstraps. Can't wait to see how this all comes out!
 
JeffLancaster said:
Can't wait to see how this all comes out!
Click to expand...

Either can i haha i miss my old studio already but can not wait to get all this finished, here's a video of my progress so far


I have completly gutted the whole place and am ready to start over again as you can see in the video

So my question is now how much treatment will this room need before it sounds good, i know i have said all this before but just to be sure...

My plan is to have a plywood door that opens in ways to level up that wall and also make a panel that sits in the window

I was also thinking of making a plywood rolling door to square up the corner where i have my records stored.

Along that wall where my records are i will have a 6 foot bench for my turntables and mixer, suspended off the wall, then i am going to build a bench right across wall to wall for my studio bench leaving at 2 foot gap behind it for my speakers right up the front staring where the door frame is,

Should i block out the back of the bench with a sheet of plywood or leave it open ?

So what i think im looking at is

4 Corners - Floor to Ceiling Basstraps (homemade SuperChunks
out of RW3)
My Refelection points
Over my head and maybe another one futher back
Right infront of me i will have a 32" TV as my main monitor, how would i go about treating that wall ?
Behind me a pritty big broadband trap

So i still havent decided on which monitors would suit my room best the Focal Alpha 65s seem like the best choice as far as i have read, but they only have a 6.5 inch cone and am thinking would i be better off just going with a 8" or will they just be too big for my room and to be sitting pritty close to them aswell.

Thanks again

Jay
Meltdown Studio
 
mjbphotos said:
IF you really think people will pay you to come into your small room, go for it. :eek:
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well, to be fair, it depends on what he's selling. It could be the room, or it could be that he does really good hard house. If it's the latter, then he could virtually work anywhere (as long as it didn't sound terrible).


OP: When marketing yourself, you have to think about what makes you stand out above the rest. . . why would someone want to pay you to do XYZ vs. doing it themselves?

If you're selling your "room" you'll have to have a lot of really nice gear and a great room, but that's not the only possible strategy. You could be selling what you do over the gear/room you have. Are you really good at hard house?
 
MrUserNameIV said:
well, to be fair, it depends on what he's selling. It could be the room, or it could be that he does really good hard house. If it's the latter, then he could virtually work anywhere (as long as it didn't sound terrible).


OP: When marketing yourself, you have to think about what makes you stand out above the rest. . . why would someone want to pay you to do XYZ vs. doing it themselves?

If you're selling your "room" you'll have to have a lot of really nice gear and a great room, but that's not the only possible strategy. You could be selling what you do over the gear/room you have. Are you really good at hard house?
Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for your reply, well i would like to consider myself good at what i do, this is why i am wanting to take it to the next level. I have a Higher National Diploma in Sound Engineering & Music Production, plus i have been djing since 1996 & producing "HardHouse" since about 2000.

Here in Ireland there is not that many studio's that you can go to for HardHouse production, most of the djs are going to the UK to get there tunes done for them, i have done this myself before but its very expensive for travel and paying the engineer (in sterling).

I run a clubnight here called Meltdown which i set up in 2004 to showcase the local talent we have in our small town, it was very successful, i was the resident dj. I also booked some top DJs from Ireland and the UK to play at my night, so i got to know some very important people in the scene.

I run a website aswell Meltdown Digital -, this is where i plan on selling all my own tracks plus anything related to meltdown, i set it all up myself too, which was very hard work, i do all the art work too, i still have a good bit to finish but the site works fine you can buy tracks of it.

I have what i consider a pritty good gear list for what i do, i built my own PC i7 4770k 16GB ram 2x SSD's ect ect with out going into detail its an beast! Cubase Pro 8 is my main DAW which im pritty good at using, which brings me onto why i started this thread in the first place.

I have completely knocked down the inside of my old studio set up and am rebuilding from scratch as i speak, i am going to treat the whole room where needed and buy myself some nice monitors to finish it all off, i didnt know much about acoustics (even though i studied it in college in 2006 haha to much drinking and parting back then) or how to set everything propperly this is why i came here for help.
I got some really good responces which has helped me decide how to go about doing everything right i.e the speaker placement, how far from the walls, which acoustic treatment i need plus loads more, so i feel like i am going in the right direction now and i can't wait to get it all finished.

Now i am trying to work out how much RW3 i will need to treat my room, i want to build my own bass traps, RF points and clouds.
My room size in Inches is, 101" wide at the front (where my speakers will be going) and 94" wide at the back, then its 78" 1/2 high at the front and 79" 1/2 at the back and its 170" long to be precise, it used to be an old shed, but i have drywalled the whole place and its well insulated with 12 inches of normal insulation in the walls and ceiling, plus now i have covered the walls with 4mm plywood.

Would anyone have an idea how much RW3 i would need to do this ??

I am holding out on buying new monitors for the time been untill i have everything set up, but i am very keen on getting the Focal Alpha 65's due to the very good reviews i have read on the net plus they are suposed to be great for small rooms, but i am not sure about the 6.5" driver and i am thinking would i be better of going with an 8" driver, i was also looking at the Yamaha HS8s, but i have been told there are rear ported and that this would not be a good choice for my room, so i still have to try figure out what speakers would suit me best

Any feedback is much apreciated

Thanks

Jay
Meltdown Studio
 
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A solid door will help deaden the outside sound and with monitors you need an equilateral Triangle between your ears and the monitors also try putting a few more pannels up you don't want your room to be totally dead but you want as minimal reflections as possible coz you will have problems with mixing later on and your sound perseption won't be as good I hope this helps you out in the long good luck and have fun
 
bongoboy said:
What exactly are you wanting to do in there? 8x6.5x14 is basically an over sized closet.
Click to expand...

I know its a small room but its what i got so i have done the best i can with it now to try turn it into a pro studio

miroslav said:
When you say "its time to take it to the next level and go pro to try making some money back in what i do"...how do you envision that? What would you consider "pro" and what do you think it would take to "make some money"?.It's important to do a reality check, so knowing the answers to that will help you do the reality check.
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Well i have invested a lot of money into rebuilding my studio and all my equipment and my custom built PC, so after all the work i have carried out so far what would you think now ?? I concider myself good at what i do and now i have a professional looking studio environment to go with it. So booking a client in now would make me feel a lot more comfortable if i was to charge him to come to my studio the way i have it looking now.

mjbphotos said:
IF you really think people will pay you to come into your small room, go for it.
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I am going for it man, im going to treat everywhere its needed buy some new 8" monitors and see where life takes me! ha!
gecko zzed said:
The second is that the room has to look 'pro', which means getting rid of all that stuff that doesn't belong and getting it cleaned up.
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This is the reason i knocked the whole inside out and done all the work to present, thanks man im glad i took your advice, i had only moved my back from the wall, but when i read this i said f@ck it im going all out now !
jimmys69 said:
The needs of the recording environment for digital based music is much different than us 'acoustic' guys.
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I agree a lot of HardHouse music is formula music anyways "unfortunately" so once i get an artist's track done in my studio i can basically use that track as a template, if he comes back (lol)
Massive Master said:
If you really want to take it to the next level, start with that.
Click to expand...

Thanks for you very infromative reply to my thread, i used pritty much all of your advice when building my studio, and as soon as i get my Acoustic Treatment i will follow your previous post as to where to place them, thank you.
BroKen_H said:
The other side of the problems you will run into is monitors. Good monitors that will give you full range (especially the low end that that genre will generate) will have a problem set. Attenuation will rob the bass, correct volume will blow out your ears in that size room. Remember that a lot of these speakers are pumping 100+dB @ 1 meter @ 1W. You haven't got much more than that meter in your room, so getting 70W speakers running with any air pump for that bass is gonna be painful...
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I am still undecided as to which monitor would suit my room best i have 600/700 euro to spend on some i just cant decide which one to go for, front or rear ported i think is going to be my biggest problem and i was nearly going to get the Yamahas HS8 but then taught about the PRESONUS ERIS 8 because its front ported, its also cheaper but thats make's me think the Yamaha might be worth the extra money (That i have)
cafehonda said:
Sorry Jay, but anyone with experience will tell you the above. Most people won't waste time trying to help someone do it wrong. Best of luck to you anyway.
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Well thats what i came up with in the video, what you think ?

JeffLancaster said:
Jay, I really admire your enthusiasm to jump in and do this right despite the limitations of the room. To me, part of the wonderful challenge of this hobby is actually trying to figure out how to make the best out of what we have. We don't all have a million dollars or a 3000 square foot building, yet we have a passion for this stuff and go for it anyway. Hell yeah!
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Love your attitude, that me all over, ill just try it anyway and if it don't work the first time ill try again until i get it right, it might take a while but the job gets done!
MrUserNameIV said:
well, to be fair, it depends on what he's selling. It could be the room, or it could be that he does really good hard house. If it's the latter, then he could virtually work anywhere (as long as it didn't sound terrible).
Click to expand...

I hope it don't sound terrible anyways after the work and money i have put in haha!, well its like what i said to Jimmys66 "I agree a lot of HardHouse music is formula music anyways "unfortunately" so once i get an artist's track done in my studio i can basically use that track as a template, so yeah after making say 100 HardHouse tracks i guess you could work anywhere with the right formula
enginer-nk said:
A solid door will help deaden the outside sound
Click to expand...

I done that man thanks for you advice, and i am also making a 3/4 inch plywood door opening into my studio aswell on removable hindges, because this i recon is going to me my left refection point

Thanks everyone for there help, here is the video of my progress so far


Next up is to treat the room now i have read so many posts on the net net that i have to say i am a little confused as to what treatment to get will RW3 now called Prorox SL930 here in Ireland do for making all my pannels and traps, Thus stuff here

https://buildwithme.ie/insulation/rockwool/rockwool-prorox-range/rw3-x-60kg-sl930

Or would RW5 be better ??

Then i may get myself a set of 8" monitors soon, i have to buy going on user reviews unfrotunately. so its extremely hard to decided here and due to spending a lot of money here too.

What would you guys recomend here front ported or rear ??

Thanks for all your help, i used a lot of info from this thread to help me build the studio the way it is now, i am more than happy with the outcome, i just can't wait to treat the room now and get new monitors to see how the sound will translate after all that work !

Jay

Meltdown Ireland
 
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